World of Amistade

Humans

Most humans are the descendants of pioneers, conquerors, traders, travelers, refugees, and other people on the move. As a result, human lands are home to a mix of people—physically, culturally, religiously, and politically different. Hardy or fine, light-skinned or dark, showy or austere, primitive or civilized, devout or impious, humans run the gamut.

In the aftermath of humanities great fall, scattered groups of humans struggled to survive as several small waves of human refugees escaped the centaurs, beastmen and masters of Chaos. These human refugees settled in the borderlands of Petra, Rouen and Sychar. In time, these refugee populations gradually coalesced into a relatively new ethnic collection referred to by the other races and themselves as the Nebari. Those humans that fell and embraced the ways of Chaos, and remained behind in their fallen war-torn lands under new masters, are called Scarrans by the Nebari and other races.

After centuries spent battling the horrors unleashed by the ancient magics of White Hawk, Petra, Odessa and Sychar. Nebari are proud and stubborn folk who refuse to buckle in the face of the centaurs, beastmen, and their fellow humans who embraced the ways of Chaos and other unspeakable evils. The Nebari worldview leans toward moral absolutes.

Although Nebari folklore derives from the ancient traditions of White Hawk, Petra, Sychar and some tribal groups. The new Nebari culture has evolved under the civilizing influences of the White Elves, Kalish and Dwarfs. After centuries of war and death this small fraction of the human population makes their living as farmers, loggers or miners in these two harsh and unforgiving lands. Though they still make indomitable foes when angered.

Nebari see life as a series of unending challenges to be overcome, many of them legacies of the hubris of long-fallen empires. For a typical Nebari, there can be no compromise with the forces of evil, even to serve a greater good. Trust must be earned, and only those deserving of trust are to be respected. History is not something to be cherished or exalted, but rather it is an object lesson as to the folly of unchecked power.

Personality: Nebari respect those who demonstrate heroism and self-sacrifice and stand unflinchingly in the face of evil. Nebari society is intolerant of weakness or selfishness, viewing deeds in stark black or white. The moralistic nature of their society strongly shapes Nebari youth. Most youngsters follow in the path of their parents, subscribing to their strong moral fervor.

Others rebel against the strictures of Nebari society and flee its constraints. The latter path accounts for the small number of Nebari emigrating to the borders of human settlement, who turn to the worship of Chaos and demons.

Nebari have a long adventuring tradition, reflecting the generations-long battle to reclaim the lands of White Hawk, Adesh and Sychar from their own legacy of war and demonic pacts.

Many youths take up adventuring for a few years in order to prove themselves in hopes of winning back their former lands or accumulating some wealth for themselves, or in response to the crusading zeal of Nebari society.

The good-aligned churches of the Nebari have a long tradition of funding expeditions into the mountains, the great forests or the depths of the Undervale to smite some ancient evil or another.

Physical Description: Nebari are of moderate height and build, standing from 5 feet to a little over 6 feet tall and weigh from 125 to 250 pounds, with men noticeably taller and heavier than women. Their skin shades range from nearly black to twany to very pale. Their hair ranges from black to brown to blond (curly, kinky, or straight), and their facial hair (for men) from sparse to thick. Eye color varies widely, with brown being most common.

Humans have short life spans, reaching adulthood at about age 15 and rarely living beyond the age of 60.

Relations: Nebari have long and abiding ties with Dwarves, and are favorably inclined toward the White Elves. Halflings are viewed quite favorably by most Nebari communities. Kalish and Lapin are regarded similarly to Dwarves, although they are less well known in Nebari communities. Codeil and Brown Elves are regarded with some amount of suspicion.

Nebari have long struggled with the evils unleashed by human sorcerers, leaving them quite hostile to the progeny of demons such as beastmen and tieflings.

Alignment: Nebari tend toward good alignments since “The Great Fall.”

Human Lands: Human lands are usually in flux, with new ideas, social changes, innovations, and new leaders constantly coming to the fore. Members of longer-lived races find human culture exciting but eventually a little wearying or even bewildering. Since humans lead such short lives, their leaders are all young compared to the political, religious, and military leaders among the other races. Even where individual humans are conservative traditionalists, human institutions change with the generations, adapting and evolving faster than parallel institutions among the other races. Individually and as a group, humans are adaptable opportunists, and they stay on top of changing political dynamics.

Nebari society is lawful and religion plays a central role in Nebari life, yet there is by no means a universality of belief.

Although religious fervor is admired, individuals are judged by how they conduct themselves and the strength of their personal moral code. There is currently little class division among the Nebari, but those who have been judged morally unfit are strongly shunned by their peers.

Nebari are usually educated in temple-run schools. Many Nebari learn their trade during an apprenticeship at a temple-run school before setting out into life, while others join a religious order, directly pledging themselves to the service of the temple. As they grow old, Nebari often return to the temple of their youth, tithing much of their wealth to its coffers and living out their last years in service to their patron deity.

Nebari refugees now typically in frontier towns guarded by a lord’s keep or fortified abbey, surrounded by vast tracts of dangerous wilderness.

Religion: Unlike members of the other common races, humans do not have a chief racial deity. Lux, the sun god, is the most commonly worshiped deity in Nebari lands, but he can claim nothing like the central place that the Dwarves give Grungni or the White Elves give Aliwon in their respective pantheons. Some humans are the most ardent and zealous adherents of a given religion, while others are the most impious people around.

Nebari honor the deities of the Amistade pantheon. They favor lawful and good deities, except for cultists who turn to the worship of chaotic evil deities and demon princes.

Magic and Lore: Nebari favor magic that discerns between friend and foe, and spells that protect the good from the evil. In the north, magic that affects the weather takes increased prominence, as do fire effects that are especially damaging to the cold-adapted monsters that haunt the wilderness.

Nebari have a strong divine spellcasting tradition, particularly in the clerical vein. Because of their suspicion of the arcane arts, Nebari have few arcane spellcasters, the rare exceptions stemming from the buried legacies of fallen human bloodlines that give rise to powerful sorcerers tend to be demonic in nature and are often accompanied by a trace of tiefling ancestry. Nebari wizards are usually abjurers or diviners, with the study of necromancy or conjuration strongly reviled.

Nebari favor spells that ward off the forces of evil or drive them from this plane, although spells that assist survival in a harsh climate are common as well.

Language: Humans speak Common. They typically learn other languages as well, including obscure ones, and they are fond of sprinkling their speech with words borrowed from other tongues: Orc curses, Elven musical expressions, Dwarven military phrases, and so on.

Nebari speak Common. Nebari employ an alphabet of runes, a legacy of early cooperation between the inhabitants of Petra and the Dwarves of the Undevale.

Typically only Nebari clerics, druids, monks, paladins, sorcerers and wizards are literate. Literacy among humans greatly declined because of the continual warfare in the former human lands.

Adventurers: Human adventurers are the most audacious, daring, and ambitious members of an audacious, daring, and ambitious race. A human can earn glory in the eyes of her fellows by amassing power, wealth, and fame.

Nebari typically make strong paladins and monks, for the discipline and self-sacrifice required of both professions resonate strongly with Nebari morals. Many Nebari find their calling as clerics or, to a lesser extent, druids or rangers, for the appeal of serving a divine entity is strong. Fighters and rogues are less common in Nebari culture than elsewhere, for there is neither a strong mercenary tradition nor a strong mercantile presence since “The Great Fall.” Arcane spellcasters of all sorts are rare in Nebari society, reflecting a long-held suspicion of magic powers that are not bestowed by a deity. While wizards are generally accepted, sorcerers are looked on with suspicion, for the sorcerous arts are thought to be a legacy of demonic heritage.

Animals and Pets: Nebari favor large canines as pets in most regions. Most breeds are working dogs, bred to serve as pack animals. Since the fall of humanity and the rise of the centaurs, Nebari working dogs have been bred to serve a variety of other uses, including herding and hunting. Most retain a distinctive thick coat.

Human – Nebari Racial Traits:

Medium: As Medium creatures, humans have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.

Human base land speed is 30 feet.

1 extra feat at 1st level, because humans are quick to master specialized tasks and varied in their talents. See Chapter 5: Feats.

4 extra skill points at 1st level and 1 extra skill point at each additional level, since humans are versatile and capable. (The 4 skill points at 1st level are added on as a bonus, not multiplied in; see Chapter 4: Skills.)

Automatic Language: Common. Bonus Languages: Any (other than secret languages, such as Druidic). See other racial lists for common languages or the Speak Language skill (page 82) for a more comprehensive list. Humans mingle with all kinds of other folk and thus can learn any language found in an area.